Friday, August 8, 2008

Ordo Salutis and a Couple of Questions

In Latin, ordo salutis means simply "order of salvation."

The "Theological Word of the Day" widget that I just added to this blog explains this well today. This is what it says about ordo salutis:

"Ordo Salutis refers to the successive order of events in the process or event of salvation. This order includes necessities such as predestination, regeneration, faith, justification, repentance, atonement, and glorification. Depending on ones particular stance on theological issues having to do with salvation, he or she will see these events in differing successions. For example, the Calvinist would normally place regeneration before faith in their ordo, while the Arminian would see regeneration as a result of faith. The Roman Catholic would see justification as an event and a process that takes place throughout the Christian’s life, while Protestants would see justification as a definite event resulting from faith. Therefore, the Roman Catholic and Protestant ordo would differ respectively."

I have two questions for the readers of this blog: First, which do you think occurs first, regeneration or faith? Second, why scripturally do you believe this?